Red Asphalt

The classic racing game gets a 3-D facelift in its sequel. Originally titled Rock 'N' Roll Racing 2, this first-person perspective racing will take on new meaning as you race in surreal worlds instead of Formula One tracks. Expect Red Asphalt to have great music like the original. Also plan on seeing dangerous new weapons and power-ups that will make for an interesting afternoon drive with the other commuters.

Formerly designed as the 3-D sequel to Rock N' Roll Racing, Red Asphalt has taken on a personality all its own. Set in the standard post-apocalyptic future. Red Asphalt combines elements of racing and carnage to deliver a game similar in design to Crash 'N Burn. There are many different tracks, and after winning a race, you are awarded money to upgrade your vehicle. With this, new weapons can be added, or more powerful cars can be purchased. Set for a December release, Road Warrior wanna-bes might have something to look forward to this holiday season.

Overview

Take one part racing and one part destruction, put them together, and out pops Red Asphalt. This futuristic battle-to-the-finish-line spans 5 worlds and 24 tracks. There are weapons aplenty and destruction is rampant since everyone has the same goal: surviving to finish the race in the top three. You might as well leave your driving gloves at home because they won't help you much when an ion torpedo finds its way up your tail pipe.

Red Asphalt has a long story behind the advent of the racing. Let me make it real easy for you. It is the future and the earth has been over run by blah, blah blah. It is up to you to race against the fierce competitors blah, blah, blah. Look, here is the deal: the game is about racing and blasting the hell out of the other racers. It is that simple.

Gameplay

The first thing I want to say about this game is that I was pleasantly surprised. I don't know exactly what I was expecting out of the game, but it was definitely better than I had hoped for. The game has received such little advertising and hype, I assumed it would just be another lame game to add to the stack. I was wrong.

This game is one of those games that is not particularly original but it is still fun. It combines features and feelings from games like Wipeout XL and Twisted Metal with Impact Racing to boot. Is this a bad thing? Not at all. These are great games on their own, so combining them together makes for a worthy effort. Once again, not original, but worthy.

The idea of the game is quite simple: finish the race in the top three positions and advance on. What spices things up some is that you are racing against 5 other vehicles that are armed to the teeth and want to keep you from winning the race. When I say they want to keep you from winning the race, I am not talking about running you off the road or bumping you into a spin. When they try to stop you, they launch missiles. Of course, you have weapons of your own to blast back at them. One of the best things about the game is the weapons system. It is somewhat limited, but very easy to learn. One button is a forward, or offensive, projectile and another button is an rear firing, or defensive, weapon. This was cool because not only could you blast the cars ahead of you, you could shoot a rear projectile weapon ant the cars behind you. There was nothing cooler than blowing away the car that was quickly gaining on you.

Aside from continuing on to the next race, when you win a race you will receive cash to purchase upgrades and new vehicles. Only the top three finishers will walk away with race cash, but even if you don't finish in the top three, you still can win cash with cash pick-ups scattered across the tracks. The more pick-ups you get, the more cash you receive at the end of the race. Cash becomes very important, and you will scream a few obscenities as you race past a cash pick-up without maneuvering into position to get it.

Not only do you receive cash at the end of the level, you will also receive experience points and chaos points. Experience points can be used to upgrade one of three categories of your driver. You can upgrade driving skills which affects your turning and top speed, the tactical skills which affects how fast your weapon locks onto an opponent, or aggression skills which affects how much damage you do with your weapons. As you upgrade a specific area, the number of points required to upgrade to the next level increases. For example, if you want to upgrade your driving from level 2 to level 3, it requires 8 experience points. To upgrade from level 3 to 4, it will take 16 experience points and so on. This makes the distribution of these points crucial.

This game really had two things that stuck out as areas of concern. The fist was the control. It was a bit loose at times and the shoulder pad buttons were used for a slide right or left. I assume they were intended to be a power-slide button, but if you so much as even thought about touch these buttons, your car would start sliding uncontrollably. I learned very quickly that these buttons do more harm than good.

The second issue I had with the game was that all you really had to do to place in the top three was buy a bunch of nitro's with your winnings and you would be able to cruise your way to a top 3 finish. I learned this after racing about 10 races. I never finished below third once I figured it out. I am all for the purchase upgrades system, but the number of nitros should have been limited to a smaller number. This was not really a huge issue, but it was still a bit unfair.

Graphics

I really liked the graphics in this game. They were not spectacular, but the different worlds felt like they were completely different worlds. The game did give a decent sensation of speed and the tracks were full of twists, turns, jumps, lava, drop offs, and a futuristic carnival. Everything was quite twisted, but really added to the game. The backgrounds zip by so fast that you will not be able to really look at them unless you sit back and watch someone else play.

Bottom Line

Red Asphalt is a surprisingly fun game. No, it will not win any awards for originality, but it is still a good time. The easy weapons system and the ability to accumulate cash and experience points will keep most gamers entertained for a while. The difficulty level is set about right as I finished the game in about 5 hours on easy, but it took significantly longer on a harder difficulty setting. There are a lot worse games on the market than Red Asphalt, and I suggest taking it for a spin.

While Red Asphalt isn't the sequel to the Super NES classic Rock N' Roll Racing in name, it certainly is in spirit. Players can choose from six surly racers with big guns and bad attitudes, then promptly tear around 25 twisting tracks on 4 planets (picture Wipeout with wheels). You can also earn extra cash for weapon and vehicle upgrades by winning races and destroying your opponents. In this early version, Red Asphalt already featured sharp graphics and played impressively fast. For the final product, Interplay has promised a techno soundtrack for your listening pleasure.

Driving Rock N' Roll Racing over to the PlayStation, Red Asphalt (the sequel) will deliver racing combat in futuristic worlds like Neo Tokyo, L.A. 2027, and even Hell. These early visuals don't give you any real gameplay screens, but they show off the six drivers, a few segments of the tracks, and five lethal vehicles. Remember how the original 16-bit soundtrack jammed with classics like Bad to the Bone and Born to be Wild? Well, Interplay promises a major modern-rock band for Red Asphalt. As they are still negotiating at press time, however, they asked us not to give it away, give it awaayyy, now! (Oops.)

May we burn forever in rock and roll hell if we aren't telling the truth when we say that Rock N' Roll Racing was one of our favorite 16-bit titles of all time. Interplay's futuristic racing-combat game had everything going for it: fast-paced gameplay which allowed you to use missiles and mines against opponents; a cool three-quarter isometric view; customizable cars and, as if that weren't enough, an awesome soundtrack which included "Highway Star" by Deep Purple and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath.

The plot of the game is the same as the first.You take on the role of a hard-boiled race-car driver in che early 21 st century. Your quest for fame and money and your thirst for destruction leads you to race on scenic tracks like Hell Planet, Neo-Tokyo, and Los Angeles, to name just a few. However, unlike its predecessor, Red Asphalt is played in a first-person perspective and it's gut-churning.

As yet, the soundtrack hasn't been confirmed, although Interplay has hinted that they're trying to get the rights to songs by "big alternative acts."